Gigi Sohn’s Backers Dismiss Call for Different FCC Nominee

Supporters of Federal Communications Commission nominee Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] are dismissing a call by advocacy group ALLvanza for President Joe Biden to drop Sohn’s nomination in favor of a Hispanic candidate. Arguing that Sohn’s confirmation is “permanently stalled,” ALLvanza president Rosa Mendoza said that Biden should quickly nominate a “well-qualified candidate like attorney Anna Gomez.“ Mendoza said that while Sohn’s nomination has been held up for most of a year, "the resulting partisan deadlock at the FCC has undermined its ability to act on priorities that are important to the Hispanic community, such as promoting digital equity, media diversity, and tackling misinformation on the airwaves." One Sohn advocate pointed out that Mendoza works for public affairs and communications firm Global Strategies Group as senior director of account management. One of the firm’s clients is Comcast. Other clients include ESPN and Google. Internet service providers have been pushing back on the nomination of Sohn, a longtime progressive activist and co-founder of the public-interest group Public Knowledge. At particular issue was her support for reinstating network-neutrality rules under Title II of the Communications Act when she was a top aide to Obama-era FCC chairman Tom Wheeler.